There is an old saying that dogs are creatures of habit. If that is true, why do so few of them behave obediently?

The answer to this seeming paradox is the same. Behaviors that have consistent consequences are repeated consistently. Behaviors that have variable consequences are hit-or-miss. For kennels and daycare, the choice is simple: create a consistent environment for your guests or don’t worry about it. There is a major advantage to the former decision. It makes it easier to handle and care for a dog over time at no real investment in your time.

Few kennels attempt to teach consistent behaviors or gain consistent obedience from the animals in their care. When Molly slips a lead on a dog, she says, “Let’s go.” Stan says, “Come along,” and Michele says, “Heel.” Over the course of a week, the dog hears each of the three words only a few times. None of them will stick. Because they are inconsistent and, to the dog, unpredictable, the only thing the dog will learn is the posture and movement of the attendant and the fact that they have a slip lead in their hands. They do not learn to listen to humans. It would be like having three attendants, each speaking their native tongue – Romanian, Chinese, and German. Each person creates a unique set of words, rules, and handling styles. The dog isn’t going to learn to connect words to events as well as it could if there were a single word used by all people. Instead of creating habitual behavior that makes your job easier, the dog learns next to nothing. Dogs that are squiggly when you enter their kennel remain squiggly forever, which wastes your time.

Timing, Timing, Timing
There is another reason why Molly, Stan, and Michele are unlikely to teach anything to the dogs in their care: incorrect timing. While we all possess speech, few of us understand how to teach associations to non-verbal animals. That starts with learning the correct sequence for connecting a word to an event. Whether this is to teach a dog not to jump up on you when you enter the kennel or to stand still while you hook up a lead, the sequence is always the same – first the word, then the start of the event. For instance, if I wanted a dog to learn that I am going to enter the kennel and slip a lead over his head, I’d say “let’s go” before I entered the kennel.

In order to make a connection between any signal and any event, the signal has to come first. That’s how dogs learn the meaning of a doorbell with no help from humans. The bell always comes first. If you present a chain of events with the word up front, the dog will rapidly learn the association. If I wanted a dog to go to an outside run so I could clean inside, I’d say “go outside” and then spritz the floor in front of the dog’s feet. Over a very few repetitions, the words “go outside” would cause the dog to go outside, because he anticipates the spritz of water that has always followed those words.

This sequence isn’t just a matter of tradition. It can be found in scholarly scientific work. For more than 35 years, Nobel Prize laureate Ivan Pavlov studied how animals make associations. He extensively studied latency, one of the aspects of learning. He discovered something that most people never learn well: the time between the presentation of a signal and the actual event isn’t all that important. The important thing is that the sequence is repeated the same way every time.

An Easy Improvement: Teaching Your Staff to Teach Your Boarders
Consider what a savings in time it would be if all of your boarders or daycare dogs were responsive to every staff member. Wiggley, squiggly little dogs love to dance around and play “catch me if you can” when you try to slip a lead on them. Big, overly friendly dogs leap up and try to gain affection while you are trying to open the kennel gate. To get them to be more calm would be an improvement, especially when you are pressed for time. It starts with taking advantage of the fact that most dogs know some semblance of “sit.” You can use that to your advantage. Here is a short training sequence that shows you how easy it is to teach functional behaviors.

1. Approach the kennel. Before you make any move to open the kennel, say “let’s go.” Wait a few seconds and say “sit.”  Wait until the dog sits. Give it 30 seconds. If there is no response, walk away and try it again in a couple minutes. Eventually the dog is going to sit at your request. It’s the strongest solicitation behavior they know.
2. When the dog sits, open the kennel and enter. Don’t bother trying to take the dog out of the kennel; just give it love and affection.
3. On the next repetition, say “let’s go” as you did before. Enter the kennel when the dog is sitting. As the dog is focused on you, slip the lead over its head. Open the kennel door and exit with the dog.
4. Repeat this sequence and watch what happens. Over a series of repetitions, the dog starts to sit automatically when you say “let’s go.” This makes putting a lead over the dog’s head a very simple task.

The key to this process is creating a predictable sequence. The dog starts to learn what your words mean and how to respond correctly. The training is done “on the fly” and requires almost no additional time to do. If all attendants use the same words in the same sequence, each will add to the dog’s knowledge of polite behavior.

Training your staff to use a specific set of words to control dogs may seem trivial. However, creating order out of chaos is comforting for the dogs and more effective for your staff. The goal of this is to make sure that the dogs you board are creatures of your habits.

Gary Wilkes is a former shelter manager with more than 25 years experience solving behavior problems by veterinary referral. For more information, visit www.clickandtreat.com or write to [email protected].

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